Setting up a club website

[donelli]

Im landed with the position of setting up a decent website for our local club.
Considering putting up fixtures, results, reports, phot gallerys, links to other sites etc.

I would appreciate if anyone could direct me towards decent servers for such websites.

Anyone with any good ones???

[screenexile]

I'm in the same boat too donelli. Have a mate who does the local soccer club website who's going to give me a hand but I really am not sure what the best way to go is. A lot of people are telling me to use joomla but this fella usually uses wordpress so I think I will be going with that.

Anyone who can be of any assistance on here would be greatly appreciated.

[heganboy]

As always I recommend servasport for this, www.servasport.com
they have a tonne of clubs counties and universities on board for the GAA already, and they are an Irish company

[AbbeySider]

I will be redesigning our own club website and will be using Joomla as a Content management system.
Im a software engineer but the Joomla stuff is fairly complicated to set up.

I have it installed on our server, I just need to set up accounts and get it to talk to some webpage templates.
I not sure yet how to set up the templates with it.

Its time consuming....    

[Mhic Easmuint]

I've developed a few for antrim clubs with an easy to use content management system and done a a fair bit of the content management for the Antrim site itself. 
The most important part is keeping it updated, which is easy with a good cms. 
But you need to be updating it regular with match reports fixtures etc so will need a good PRO/team looking after it. 

[tbrick18]

The GAA have their own content mamangement system already set up that clubs and counties can use.
I think all you have to do is get your club secretary to register your club details and provide club colours and crests and they do everything for you.
They then provide you with web address like www.myclub.gaa.ie. There will also be a link to your club from the GAA.ie site.
They give you manuals on how to update it and I think it is very straightforward.

Here is the link on the official GAA site for all the info.

http://www.gaa.ie/page/gaa_websites.html

If it was me I would go with this.....why re-invent the wheel thats what I say.

[phpearse]

I done the Galbally one in WordPress and it was very easy. Not that wile flashy but very easy to update with club notes, photos and league tables and results. Will be very easy to hand over to the next PRO to keep updated.

www.galballygac.com

[cornerback]

I wouldnt say good but it does the job : http://www.moy-gfc.com - developed using Dreamweaver & ColdFusion. Im sure the programming is like a spaghetti junction by now but try and work out what exactly you want from the site, the hardest part of building a site isnt the programming or development, it is getting the content together which has to go onto it and a decent PRO who will give you regular information for updating.

And that's were the plan all falls apart, screenexile 

[screenexile]

Shut up mouth!!! I didn't see you volunteer for any positions at the AGM so keep it shut!

Tbrick I have looked into the gaa.ie sites and to be honest they are all pretty primitive and I've been told that it isn't too difficult to get a better site up and running. For the time being I will be setting up a gaa.ie site to get used to updating and then when I have the better site sorted I hope to transfer it across.

As PRO I have no problem updating the site but I'll be damned if I'm producing all the content so it will be up to managers and club members to do their bit for it to be a success. I was asked last night at the club meeting if we will be having a guestbook! Some chance... those things are more hassle than they're worth.

[Mhic Easmuint]

I was asked last night at the club meeting if we will be having a guestbook! Some chance... those things are more hassle than they're worth.

Yeah can be a hassle, but if you have an administered guestbook it can be useful for replying to genuine queries. 
When posters see that the stupid/daft posts aren't being put on they will soon stop posting them. 

[WeeDonns]

I used joomla for our site. www.drumraghgfc.net.
I'd definitely recommend it. You don't have to have much programming experience to set one up, and you need none at all to update a joomla site.

Abbeysider, you're not painting a good picture of joomla. It's very simple to use.

There's plent of useful step-by-step books;
http://shop.joomla.org/amazoncouk-bookstores.html

I used Building Website with Joomla for my first one and it's pretty good.

As PRO I have no problem updating the site but I'll be damned if I'm producing all the content

The earlier versions of our site were all html based and needed me to update all the info and even with others producing the material, it was a pain in the ass to be honest.

You want a CMS based site that others can update themselves. It means that you can let the PRO, team managers etc update the site themselves. It'll mean that the site will be much better as a result I think.
If you check our sites clubtalk section, you'll have to go back 11 articles before you find one submitted by me, which is great:)


Id have to agree with Mac Eoghan. The hardest part is getting the content. That's why it's good to have users from every section of the club involved in uploading content.
Although I think he definitely needs to get rid of that blue menu on his site


Does your club use servasport heganboy? How much do they charge??

How much do all of you get charged p/a for club websites? I remember someone on here before saying that they paid quite a lot for their hosting etc.

I pay £19 for 500mb of webspace but I need to increase it as I've used 80%. 1143 photos in the gallery at this stage

The company I use are having a 50% off sale at the moment;
http://hosting-unlimited.co.uk/products/hosting/index.asp

my domain name only costs £8.50 p/a

So a total of £27.45 p/a isn't bad.

[carnaross]

Im landed with the position of setting up a decent website for our local club.
Considering putting up fixtures, results, reports, phot gallerys, links to other sites etc.

I would appreciate if anyone could direct me towards decent servers for such websites.

Anyone with any good ones???

St. Benedicts Harps GAA in Leeds use "intheteam.com" who provide sites for many sports. You can have different plans, I have the dearest (£99.00pa) and it works well. Fixtures, league tables, stats as well as a guestbook and a forum which you can have as a closed shop for club members or have it open to all. Have a look at it and decide for yourself:  http://stbenedictsharps.intheteam.com

HTH

[Bud Wiser]

www.homestead.com

Around 44 euro a year, easy to put together and additional sites are about 2 euro a month once you have one.
Do the trial and then see what you think.

[tbrick18]

Shut up mouth!!! I didn't see you volunteer for any positions at the AGM so keep it shut!

Tbrick I have looked into the gaa.ie sites and to be honest they are all pretty primitive and I've been told that it isn't too difficult to get a better site up and running. For the time being I will be setting up a gaa.ie site to get used to updating and then when I have the better site sorted I hope to transfer it across.

As PRO I have no problem updating the site but I'll be damned if I'm producing all the content so it will be up to managers and club members to do their bit for it to be a success. I was asked last night at the club meeting if we will be having a guestbook! Some chance... those things are more hassle than they're worth.

You're right there....I only suggested it (as I have done before to our last website developer  ) as all the work of setting it up is taken out of your hands and then anyone who can read a manual can update it (reducing the workload for the pro). It's the quick and easy way to do it, but it would be better to get a custom made site up and running.
I know the problem in the past for our PRO was that at the start of the year there were always match reports sent in from managers, but as the year wore on these became few and far between. Then everyone complains to the PRO about lack of information! Its one of the toughest jobs IMO, so good luck to you.

[AbbeySider]

I used joomla for our site. www.drumraghgfc.net.
I'd definitely recommend it. You don't have to have much programming experience to set one up, and you need none at all to update a joomla site.

Abbeysider, you're not painting a good picture of joomla. It's very simple to use.

There's plent of useful step-by-step books;
http://shop.joomla.org/amazoncouk-bookstores.html

I used Building Website with Joomla for my first one and it's pretty good.

CMS is the way forward. We have people in our club that are fantastic at updating the site, and know very little html.
I just need to make time for it. Between gym, playing a bit and other interests it is something I have put on the long finger for a while after my initial setup. I just downloaded that E-Book you mentioned and will crack on with the re-design soon.

Anyone know any good sites for downloading templates to work from?